It's been reported that the Doc Savage comic book is being canceled (presumably they're going to wrap up the ongoing story first), and my reaction is - thank goodness!It's not that I dislike Doc and his fellow adventurers - quite the contrary, as I have written before.
But I can't bear to see what they've done to him, and at this point canceling the comic is more like putting it out of its misery.
There have been (I think) three stories serialized in this series so far. The first one was terrible (story and art), the second one was a bit better (story and art), and the one running now is the worst yet.
I generally try not to be too negative about the work people do in comics - presumably they work hard and are doing the best they can under (possibly) difficult circumstances.
But wow, is this story terrible. Written by J.G. Jones, it just makes no sense at all. Doc and his allies Renny and Monk are (apparently) in an ocean somewhere near Egypt (I think) - I'm not sure, nor are we ever given an indication where they are in this issue.
They start the issue fighting crocodiles (in the ocean?), they are arrested, thrown in jail, survive an assassination attempt by the world's dumbest bad guys, they hop a jet to follow a woman who has stolen some kind of artifact from them (one the opening page seems to show being dropped into the ocean)... and that's about it.
In other words, I don't know what's going on, and there's no effort made to bring the reader up to date.
The art isn't much help, either. Drawn by Quig Ping Mui, the style is a revival of all the worst elements of the early Image Comics style - poor anatomy, terrible perspective, characters who are indistinguishable from each other (why do Renny and Johnny both have mohawk haircuts?) - you get the idea.
It's like this: if DC can't do a better job creating adventures for Doc Savage, I'd prefer they didn't try. Let's leave it to a creative team who has a handle on the character and the elements of basic storytelling.
We're not getting that here.
Grade: D
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2 comments:
I agree, it was a waste and no sense of what the character was is or could be about.
Beau Smith
The Flying Fist Ranch
Beau, exactly right.
Oh, I forgot to mention the one good thing about the comic - a great cover by Jones.
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